Birthday Letter for Joel

Dear Big Boy Joel,


Happy Birthday! I can't believe that one short year ago we got our first cousin. We remember it was so much fun to visit you in the hospital when you were born. You have been such a fun cousin. You are so good at walking, you have been walking for several months now. Walking is cool, but do you know what's cooler? That's right. Wrestling. Maybe next year.


We had a great time at your crazy birthday party. The train was super fun, and we liked jumping in the big moonwalk with the other 8.2 gajillion kids that were there. Who knew Uncle Izzy had so many assorted cousins and such? One of the unexpected highlights of your party was the giant water fight spurned on by the discovery of the water guns in our goody bags. But since Daddy didn't get a goody bag, he just decided to just get a water bottle and squirt it on everyone. Our daddy is so mature, and such a good example to all the children.
One of the best part of the party for Dane was drinking no fewer than 4 Capri Sun drinks. Apparently, his Mommy and Daddy were too busy chatting and eating REALLY SPICY jalapeno hot dogs to actually watch us. Silly parents. Why yes, I would like a drink.

I am sorry that Aidan found where the pinatas were hiding in the house before it was pinata time. That kid is resourceful! Mommy was so confused when Aidan kept wandering into the kitchen with handfuls of bubblegum and Werther's candies. He had discovered that he could just reach the hole at the top of the pinata where the candy was loaded into. He was a bit perplexed when people started hitting his Loaded Lion with the big stick, and he didn't think it was too fair that he had to share his secret candy stash with the other 1.2 million children at the party.

We both also really enjoyed helping Big Boy Joel open his birthday gifts. Man, that kid got a LOT of stuff! Aidan also wanted to apologize for opening some of the presents before Joel really got a chance to. We had a lot of fun picking out the present that we gave Joel. Dane was insistent that he get shoes and a dinosaur shirt, and we also picked out a Diego ball and Lightening McQueen car that zooms on the floor. Mommy's not so sure that we understood that we were picking out gifts for someone else, because frankly, we just wanted to buy 2 of everything and keep one set for our house.

One of Aidan's favorite part of the party was when Big Boy Joel got to dig into his cake. He really knows what he's doing when it comes to cake. None of this staring at it and poking it like Dane did when he turned one. Joel dug right in, and, much to Aidan's delight, some of the icing got on the floor under the highchair. No worries! Discarded cake icing is Aidan's favorite. He found a nice comfortable spot underneath the birthday boy and had a little feast of his own. (Insert random Biblical analogy here). This was Big Boy Joel towards the end of the Cake Massacre of 2008, right before his bath. (We didn't need a bath, we just needed a good water fight with the 3.9 quadrillion other kiddos.)
Happy Birthday Big Boy Joel!

Love, Dane and Aidan